I kept a journal on my iPhone Notes app during the pandemic; it was a handy digital diary of thoughts or experiences as they occurred. With my iPhone a constant companion for staying in touch with friends and family, I discovered that my texts, jottings in the Notes app and emails became a chronicle of those two long years on a strange landscape. That was a big “wow” for a long-form writer, and a terrific way to be able to retell that “moment in time” to my grandchildren.
There are several software programs that allow you to download and print what’s on your iPhone, so I can save and repurpose my iPhone journals. I used DecipherTools to save texts to my laptop and organize in folders. Then I printed my iPhone Notes entries directly from my device. It was great fun to convert these snippets to actual paper journals – adding photos, illustrations and handwritten script, a technique I learned in a PaperSource “creative journaling” virtual workshop.
A Long Journaling Habit
My love of keeping a journal began as a child with the nightly “Dear Diary” letters to myself, capturing “news” about my latest boyfriend or an emotional high (or low) or my first trip abroad as an exchange-student one summer. Over the years, I’ve filled written journals to cope with life’s ups and downs and taught journaling to cancer survivors. Having this new relationship with a new format to keep track of thoughts, experiences and occasional flashes of wisdom has become a ton of fun.
Now when I travel, my iPhone journal becomes my first draft. With information immediately captured in real-time 30-second notes, texts, social media and emails – and eventually collected in an organized way – journaling by iPhone is a rewarding companion:
- I write journals for my granddaughters –Â the first one I met before we got “locked down,” and the second, whom I couldn’t meet until she was 6 months old. Later in life, I spent hours pouring through the hand-written and typed letters my parents, grandmothers and aunts wrote me; they log my personal history in snippets, and theirs too.
- I compiled reflections through a months-long illness – and discovered happily how I’d progressed emotionally.
- I recorded notes for this blog while I lacked the motivation to write full articles and “writer’s block” persisted.
A few examples of how I record my thoughts:
- On the treadmill at the YMCA, Nov. 23, 2022: “Work is oxygen.”
- Charlotte, NC., Sept. 30, 2022: “I see a single gardenia blooming off my porch and the gold finches are back. It is a relief to see them, as it was too hot and dry for them for most of the summer. I hope this is a sign of the positive cycles of nature. I recall Heather Cox Richardson‘s kayaking image from her blog the other evening – brilliant sunset, joyous laughing, as if all will be well.”
- Charlotte, NC, April 15, 2022: “I am reading Stanley Tucci’s memoir Taste and dreaming of travel, in his case Manhattan and Italy, while savoring the recipes he incorporates from his Italian mama as he was growing up in Westchester County, NY. Restrictions and behaviors have seemed to relax in recent weeks although the new strains of coronavirus are still very infectioAbout Writingus. Having received my second booster, I am starting to journey out again, somewhere between the ‘postpone nothing’ crowd and the still-masked ‘at-homers.'”
- New York City – March 10, 2022: “Two years ago to this day I was in the same hotel freaking out because the pandemic was ascending. New York was creepy, and I found my quick escape. Today there’s a feeling of cautious optimism as if things are coming back. Signs of darker times, however, persist all around. The huge East Side Marriott around the corner is permanently shuttered. Boutiques and small restaurants have ‘open’ signs but are dark. The hotel bar lobby has 20 guests or so scattered about, socially distanced. An excellent live jazz trio plays for the lingerers. A glass of Sancerre is $21, but it was a deep four-finger pour to make up for the price. I started the evening across town at a film a Lincoln Center – a foreign film whose moral was about the consequences of not doing the important things until it’s almost too late, and more broadly, the clash between ambitions, expectations and reality. Heavy stuff, artfully rendered. That resonated with me deeply, especially during these strange times when we feel we have ‘lost’ so much.”
